The best way to move about in the Rwandan capital of Kilgali is by “moto” – or motorcycle. Those who do not own one can easily hail a moto as a taxi; a very common sight across the wider East African region.

While neighboring countries such as Kenya and Uganda also have the same form of taxi transport, Rwanda has the distinction of the moto driver profession being dominated by males.

But one Rwandan company is hoping to slowly change that, with the hiring of the country’s first women moto drivers.

Getting around in the Rwandan capital Kigali is best done by “moto” – or motorcycle – a form of transportation common in countries in East Africa.

Motorbikes serve as taxis, zooming between cars often in breakneck fashion, bringing passengers and their luggage from point A to B. Although countries such as Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have different names for the form of transport, motos are ever-present in each.

But in Rwanda, the profession of moto driver has been dominated by men, not only leading to potentially dangerous moments for women using the motos, but also excluding them from gaining economic power.

Now, one company is slowly trying to change that, employing the first female moto drivers in Rwanda.

“When we started this project, there were no female moto drivers. So I went out to look for women for this project,” Sandrine Nikuze told Al Jazeera.

Nikuze works for SafeMotos, the first moto company in Rwanda to start employing women as drivers. But finding those women was not easy.

“I talked to the women who sold goods on the side of the street, which is not allowed in Rwanda,” she said. “When I interviewed them, I told them we could change their lives. I told them they no longer had to fear the police who would chase them because they were selling goods on the side of the streets.”

“But when I tried to talk these women they said, ‘no woman can do that’. They thought people were going to laugh at them, and they thought they wouldn’t be able to ride the motorcycle,” Nikuze said. “They were simply afraid of doing it.”

Female empowerment

But Nikuze persevered, eventually signing up five women, of whom three got their moto license. The idea to enroll women as drivers came from Barrett Nash, one of the two founders of the company.

“Rwanda talks a lot about female empowerment, so I was struck by the fact there were no female drivers,” Nash told Al Jazeera.

Currently, the most important thing is for both the drivers and the customers to feel like female drivers are normal.

“People often say things like ‘oh females can’t drive’, but the people on the back often don’t even notice the drivers are female because they wear helmets and can’t see they’re women,” Nash said.

Nikuze recalls an instance one of the drivers told her about, confirming this.

“Two female drivers were at the same place, and one of them looked a bit more like a man. The customer went to the driver who looked a bit more manly, and he said bad things about female drivers,” she said.

“When he reached the destination he discovered he was being driven by a female, after which he said ‘no way I can’t believe it’.

After that he apologised, but he learned from that experience that women can do this just as well.”

And, maybe more importantly, the women’s lives are improving because they gain financial independence and respect within the community.

“The women have all sorts of backgrounds: single mothers, married women, anyone who wants to change Rwandan culture and be more independent,” Nikuze said.

The company is now looking at a feature to allow female customers to specifically request female drivers, which would improve the safety for both driver and customer.

But currently, there simply are not enough women who drive the motorcycles to meet that demand, partially because it is an issue getting enough motos for the women, who currently have to go through a complicated process to acquire a bike.

“We still have a problem getting motos,” Nikuze said, explaining the women start paying for their motorbikes three months after starting to work for the company.

Nikuze said she is currently looking at solutions to solve this.

“We want to work with the government to provide women with loans so they can get their own motos,” she said.

Hopefully soon, she said, the company will also employ female drivers in more rural parts of Rwanda, not just Kigali.

Despite the low number of female drivers in Rwanda zooming through the city, Nikuze said her work achieves more than just women’s employment.

It is also about a cultural shift, she emphasised, changing the perception of men and women in Rwanda – and around the world.

“Every woman has to believe in herself. If you as a woman don’t believe in yourself, in your abilities, nobody else is going to believe in you,” she said.

“We as females need to stand up and fight for our rights and fight for our improvement,” Nikuze added.

“I would really love every Rwandan woman, every African woman and every woman all over the world to believe that we can do everything we can do that we want to.”

Al Jazeera News

]]>http://amandlanews.com/kigalis-female-moto-drivers/feed/0Church opposes Burundi referendumhttp://amandlanews.com/5614-2/
http://amandlanews.com/5614-2/#respondWed, 16 May 2018 13:45:56 +0000http://amandlanews.com/?p=5614Burundi’s influential Catholic bishops said on Thursday that they were opposed to fundamental constitutional changes to be voted on in a referendum this month. If passed, the proposed changes could see President Pierre Nkurunziza remain in charge for another 16 years.

Catholic bishops in Burundi have criticized an upcoming referendum on constitutional reform, warning that voters will be too afraid to express their views.

If passed May 17, the proposal would enable President Pierre Nkurunziza, already in power since 2005, to remain in office till 2034.

“Many citizens are living in fear, even if they don’t say this openly, and don’t dare say what they think for fear of reprisals,” the bishops’ conference said in a statement.

“Instead of uniting Burundians, work on this constitution project seems to have exacerbated the discord. In our view, this is not an opportune moment for profoundly amending the constitution.”

It said the Catholic Church had a mission to foster “unity, concord and peace,” and believed insufficient account had been taken of the existing constitution’s Article 299, which bars revisions “if they damage national unity, the cohesion of the Burundian people or reconciliation.”

“Many people have fled the country, including members of the political class; and while some have responded to the authorities’ appeal by returning, many have not, for various reasons, and so will not be able to express their views,” said the bishops’ statement.

“Their fear is often caused by the language, attitude and behavior of certain Burundians, who use violence and abuse their authority to suppress the freedom of expression and opinion of their political adversaries.”

The Catholic Church makes up around two-thirds of the 8.5 million inhabitants of Burundi, which was thrown into conflict in 2015 following Nkurunziza’s acceptance of a third term in apparent violation of the constitution.

More than 1,200 people have been killed and 250,000 forced to flee abroad in subsequent roundups by pro-government paramilitaries, amid fears of a resurgence of ethnic conflict that left 250,000 dead in a 1993-2006 civil war between Burundi’s Tutsi and Hutu communities.

The bishops noted that Burundi’s democratic system had been “put to the test” since 2015 and still needed to be “accepted step by step,” adding that the church would appeal for all political actors “to give priority to the country’s good.”

“Efforts at dialogue, which should bring them together, haven’t succeeded — and this is a shame since concord or division in the population often depend on its political class,” the bishops’ conference said.

“Given the democratic path our country has assumed, voting will have the final word. So we can only hope this referendum takes place in peace and freedom, and that Burundians will vote Yes or No without any pressure.”

Human rights groups have cited widespread intimidation since campaigning opened May 1, particularly by supporters of Nkurunziza’s government, which suspended broadcasts by the BBC and Voice of America in early May after accusing them attempting to discredit the president.

The Associated Press said May 8 that people feared a new wave of civic conflict after a ruling party official urged people “to castrate the enemy,” and another called for Nkurunziza’s opponents “to be drowned in a lake.”

Without a doubt, African fashion has experienced a significant boom of late. With the growing exposure through movies and social media, African fabrics is no longer just the choice of the African diaspora, but has now become top-of-mind for celebrities and trendsetters alike.

For the past several years, African fabrics that used to attract curious onlookers have gradually become fashionable in the New York Metro Area, especially during warm weather. With a variety of designs and wide selections from the continent’s numerous cultures, African fabrics are fast becoming popular because of their ease of wear and care. Fabric dealers contend that trips to Africa, especially by African-Americans, have facilitated the fad of African fabrics and wax prints.

Black History Month and special programs at historically Black churches also propel sales of African fabrics and clothes for cultural identity. Kente stoles have become symbols of cultural identity at college graduations and inductions of people of African descent across the U.S.

In the past few months, Black Panther, the all-Black cast movie, helped increase demand for African fabrics and clothing. And with the craze came the appearance of numerous African fabrics outlets in the New York Metro Area and beyond.

At the Malcolm Shabazz Harlem Market (116th Street and Lenox Ave), African stalls are filled with fabrics and textiles of Bokola (mudcloth) from Mali, Manjak from the Senegal, Adire from Yoruba, Nigeria, Akwete, from Igbo, Nigeria, among others.

Baba, a vendor from Mali, says most of the items on sale at the African Plaza – designer clothes, djembe drums, shea butter, etc. – come from Ghana. “Ghana is Africa’s China,” he beams. Almost all the vendors at the Malcolm Shabazz Harlem Market are from West Africa.

Conspicuously absent from the stalls is Ghana’s Kente, even though shades and varieties of it from elsewhere are scattered here and there.

The Flatbush Caton Market on Clarendon Road, Brooklyn, offers a compelling contrast to its counterpart in Harlem. Most of the vendors of the indoor market are of Caribbean descent, and clothing and dresses are more conspicuous than fabrics or textiles.

In other parts of New York City and in Essex County, New Jersey, individualized stores carry more varieties of African fabrics, prints, textiles, and designers’ clothes. At a few places, tailors and seamstresses produce custom-made clothes and dresses such as fugu and danchiki.

According to Sarah Sarpong, proprietress of Akuaba African Fashions, a Kente and African fabrics/clothes vendor in Maplewood, New Jersey, the greatest threat to authentic African fabrics such as Kente or mudcloth is the knockoff duplicates that are factory-manufactured in some Asian countries.

Authentic Kente, mudcloth, Akwete, Korhogo, and others are handmade and not factory-produced, she emphasized. Ms. Sarpong is worried that some customers unwittingly buy anything that resembles Kente or mudcloth.

She may be right, but the factory-manufactured fabrics from China, Thailand, Pakistan, and India are far cheaper than those produced manually. She explained that hand-woven Kente can be distinguished from a factory produced item by its texture, which is heavier to the touch. Hand-woven Kente is made in strips and manually sewn together; factory produced Kente is seamless.

Rosina Osei of Rosina’s African Fashion in downtown Newark, New Jersey contends that customers have a choice to buy quality textiles or otherwise. Linda Kuffour of My Outlet African Fabrics in Orange, New Jersey pointed out an original Jooji (George) from Nigeria and one made in India.

She believes Africa is losing its unique handicraft fabric designs to some of these Asian mass producers. Kente is believed to have first been factory-manufactured by a textile company in Ghana. Wholesale dealers looking to beat down cost took the designs to China, where they were factory-produced at cheaper rate than in Ghana.

Today, most African fabric dealers import factory-produced textiles from elsewhere and sell to wholesalers and retailers. While the exquisite and expensive Ghanaian men’s wraparound cloths are products of India, African wax prints have been manufactured in Holland for decades. In New York City, midtown Broadway is filled with fabrics mostly utilized by Africans.

One textile vendor told this writer matter-of-factly, “African fabrics, prints and clothes are worn by Africans, but they no longer come from Africa.”

]]>http://amandlanews.com/african-fashion-makes-inroads-but/feed/0Liberian Refugees in the U.S. Facing Deportationhttp://amandlanews.com/liberian-refugees-in-the-u-s-facing-deportation/
http://amandlanews.com/liberian-refugees-in-the-u-s-facing-deportation/#respondThu, 26 Apr 2018 05:23:48 +0000http://amandlanews.com/?p=5605As President Trump announced the end of the a protected status program created for refugees of the Liberian Civil War, immigrants in New York’s “Little Liberia” are considering going underground, preparing to leave the U.S. and simply praying for a reprieve. Their experience mirrors what could happen for hundreds of thousands of other immigrants with similar legal protections.

At 67, Rose Knuckles Bull has had enough. The onetime government administrator and Liberian refugee says she put in her time working, paid her taxes and now just wants to go home. Bit by bit, she is packing her things and saving up for a container to ship everything back to Careysburg.

That’s not an option for Prince. The 52-year-old has a teenage daughter in school here and nothing to return to in Unification Town. As for 50-year-old Alexander

Morris? The clergyman from Monrovia is leaving his fate to God. Across America, time is running out for thousands of Liberians who came here in the face of a grinding civil war, staggering poverty and disease. Some have already lost their legal status to be here. For others, their protected status will expire in less than a year.

But for all, there’s an inescapable reality — those who have made a life in the U.S. now must decide whether to return to a country they haven’t known for years, or stay put and live life on the margins, risking deportation. Temporary protected status, or TPS, the legal designation that allows immigrants from countries affected by war or natural disaster to work and live in the U.S., expired for Liberian immigrants last May.

Another form of discretionary relief known as deferred enforced departure, offered to Liberians who arrived in the 1990s and early 2000s, was set to run out last month but President Trump gave those Liberians one final year to “wind down” their lives in America.

Some hold out hope that Congress will intervene on behalf of the nearly 90,000 Liberians the Census Bureau estimates are in the U.S., many of whom are concentrated in the Northeast and East Coast, from Minnesota to New York. On Staten Island, New York City’s smallest and whitest borough — and the only one that voted for Trump — Liberians are clustered in a few brick apartment buildings along Park Hill Avenue. The area, next to the island’s northeastern shore, was once plagued by violent crime and drugs, but is today a mostly peaceful, tightknit community shared with immigrants from other West African nations.

“Liberians on Staten Island are at the front lines of the Trump administration’s attack on immigrants,” said Javier Valdes, co-executive director of the immigrant advocacy group Make the Road New York. “This community is… experiencing the pain that will strike roughly 300,000 TPS holders from other countries very soon if Congress fails to act.”

In one building full of Liberians, nicknamed the “executive mansion” after the presidential home in Liberia, an elderly woman cooks lunch each day for anyone who needs a meal. On Sunday mornings, women wearing tall head wraps and bright dresses with geometric prints fill the pews of evangelical churches. People take one another food from the local pantry.

They don’t inquire about legal status. Bull arrived in the U.S. on a visitor’s visa in 1999. She had been in the country before, in the 1970s, when she studied sociology at Susquehanna University and earned a master’s degree in education at Howard University. Back in Liberia she worked for the Ministry of Education and administered the government’s civil service exam. But when the country devolved into civil war, she fled with her children, living as a refugee in the Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria.

Shortly after Bull came to the U.S., then-President Clinton granted Liberians a form of deportation relief and work authorization known as deferred enforced departure. Since then, Bull has lived and legally worked in New York through various renewals of that program and of TPS. She did temp work, worked as a substitute teacher and eventually got a full-time clerical job with the city. Through it all, she paid taxes and sent money back home to help put her four children through college. Two of them now live in the U.S.

In 2013, Bull retired and began collecting Social Security, a benefit she is legally entitled to as long as her status doesn’t change. But when deferred enforced departure ends, so will her monthly payments. As the original March 31 expiration date loomed, Bull began preparing for her departure, slowly packing clothes, bedding and even furniture to take back home.

She said she wants to return to Careysburg, about 20 miles northeast of Monrovia, the country’s capital, to see her 93-year-old mother and to help rebuild her country. She has plans to open a home for seniors. Mostly, though, she’s tired of trying to carve out a full life in America. “I have outgrown the stress of this,” Bull said. “I have never used my skills here. I just decided I would be more helpful to my people back home.”

Liberia and the U.S. have a long, intertwined history, going back to the early 1800s, when Liberia was settled by freed American slaves. The country, whose flag bears a strong resemblance to Old Glory, became independent in 1847. In 1926, Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. began operating in Liberia under a 99-year, 1 million-acre land concession that dramatically expanded U.S. inf luence. Firestone supplied rubber for the Allied powers during World War II and later cooperated with warlord Charles Taylor during the civil war of the 1990s.

The Liberian migration to the U.S. began with the civil war, which dragged on for 14 years and killed more than 200,000 people, and flared again with the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Some who fled were admitted and settled in the U.S. as refugees. Others received temporary protected status, first designated in 1991 and later renewed and redesignated several times.

Returning to Liberia is out of the question for some. Still recovering from the legacy of conflict and Ebola, the country has a weak economy, poor infrastructure and limited healthcare. “For the most part if it were feasible for people to return, people would have returned,” said Amaha Kassa, executive director of African Communities Together, a New York-based nonprofit that supports African immigrants. “People are saying, ‘Unless I’m deported, I’m going to remain as long as I’m able.’”

Kassa is working with other advocates and policymakers to ensure that Liberians are included in any immigration deal that Congress considers. Critics of TPS say the program was always meant to provide only temporary emergency relief, not a long-term path to residency.

But that’s precisely what Prince, who asked only to be identified by his first name for fear of being deported, is hoping for. He came to the U.S. in 2013 and was granted TPS in 2014. He underwent back surgery for a ruptured disc and worries he cannot get adequate care in Liberia. His daughter, whom he described as an “A” student who dreams of becoming a doctor, is about to graduate high school.

“The situation back home is so bad … we can never go back,” Prince said. “If she goes she will not have the same opportunities.” Since losing their status last year, Prince and his daughter have quietly continued to go about their lives. He works off the books as a private security guard and avoids going out in public. “Every day I think we could be picked up any time,” Prince said. “I don’t socialize. I work, I go home. I tell my daughter, ‘From school, come straight home. Don’t go nowhere.’”

As Prince spoke, standing near an empty lot where in warmer weather vendors sell dried fish and fufu at an outdoor market, the streets around him were empty. One man, an immigrant from Guinea whose temporary status also expired last year, sat in his car watching for police and immigration officers, ready to alert his neighbors and friends at the first sign. “People are hiding,” said Jennifer Gray-Brumskine, a community organizer with Make the Road New York who is Liberian and lives on Staten Island. “They’re always in a hurry, just going to work or going to the store and staying out of trouble.”

On Sundays, some churches provide van transportation and meals so people don’t have to walk to services or the grocery store and risk encountering a police officer.

“For a lot of people the refuge is the church,” Gray-Brumskine said. Morris is one of them. He came to the U.S. about six years ago to study with the Bethel Church. He worked two jobs — a park maintenance worker by day and a home health aide by night. On weekends he led prayer services, earning a stipend from church donations.

Now that stipend is all Morris can count on. He lost his jobs when TPS ended. “What I really miss is the people I worked with … work mates, patients. I miss the companionship and being able to help,” he said. Morris usually takes home about $500 a month from the church, just enough to pay rent on the basement apartment he hopes his wife and three children, who are still in Monrovia, may one day call home. He gets by doing odd jobs for other Liberians, helping someone move, for example, or cleaning an apartment. He refuses to go to the local food pantry — or go into hiding.

On a recent Sunday morning the gray-haired deacon, dressed in a collared shirt and neatly pressed slacks, paced back and forth at the front of the Bethel Worship Center, delivering rapid-fire prayers. During the service, a boisterous affair with loud music and dancing, he mingled with congregants in the aisle, shaking a saasaa for percussion and swaying his hips, his eyes closed. “You’ve just got to make yourself joyful,” Morris said. “Which one of us by worrying can add anything to our situation?”

Los Angeles Times

]]>http://amandlanews.com/liberian-refugees-in-the-u-s-facing-deportation/feed/0Ghana King Visits Former Jersey Churchhttp://amandlanews.com/ghana-king-visits-former-jersey-church/
http://amandlanews.com/ghana-king-visits-former-jersey-church/#respondThu, 26 Apr 2018 05:17:07 +0000http://amandlanews.com/?p=5602Nana Amoatia Ofori Panin II, King of Akyem Abuakwa in the Eastern Region of Ghana paid a visit to his former home of New Jersey Saturday, April 7th. The King, who prior to his enstoolment and relocation to Ghana was a New Jersey resident and member of the First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens, led a high-powered delegation of royalty of Akyem Abuakwa to the United States.

History was made April 7, 2018 when the First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, New Jersey hosted a mini-durbar for the Okyenhene, King of Akyem Abuakwa in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The King, Nana Amoatia Ofori Panin II, who prior to his enstoolment and relocation to Ghana was a New Jersey resident and member of the First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens, led a high-powered delegation of royalty of Akyem Abuakwa to the U.S.

In a brief introductory remark, the leader of the Church, the Reverend Dr. DeForest B. Soaries, Jr. reminded the capacity-filled audience that, even though Africans were brought to the U.S. as slaves in the early 1600s, the forces of negativity could not destroy the cord that ties Africa-Americans to the motherland. “I don’t need a DNA because I have a home in Akyem Abuakwa,” the affable Dr. Soaries added.

The Reverend Dr. DeForest B. Soaries, Jr. was enstooled Nkosuohene (Chief of Development) in Kyebi, the traditional capital of Akyem Abuakwa, with the Stool name Nana Kwadwo Ababio. Dr. Soaries, in his capacity as Chief of Development, is spearheading efforts to build a mega resource center near Okyenhene’s Palace – Ofori Panin’s Fie – in Kyebi After the languages of the Seseben (Telling horns) and Atumpan (Talking drums), the Okyenhene, who is also the President of the Eastern Region House of Traditional Rulers in Ghana, pointed out that the tenets of love were inculcated in him while a member of the First Baptist Church in Lincoln Gardens.

He implied that he found courage in the leadership of Dr. Soaries and contrasted that to the current political leadership of his country Ghana.

Paraphrasing Denzel Washington, the king said that making a living and being productive in contemporary life in itself is not enough, but rather, making

a productive difference in someone else’s life is what really matters. He philosophized that “children should go to bed and dream like children.” The King urged investors to come to Ghana for investments. “Partner us for viable ventures with your capital and experience to transform lives, instead of handouts,” he

urged.

The royal delegation from Ghana included Daasebre Boama Darko, Adontenhene (Main or Central Command in War formation of yesteryear) and others.

]]>http://amandlanews.com/ghana-king-visits-former-jersey-church/feed/0AMANDLA APRIL FULL ISSUE!http://amandlanews.com/amandla-april-full-issue/
http://amandlanews.com/amandla-april-full-issue/#respondMon, 23 Apr 2018 22:30:40 +0000http://amandlanews.com/?p=5598You can now read the full monthly issues of Amandla directly on our website! Click the icon below for the full screen view.

The colossal 3,200-year-old statue of Ramses II was moved from its home for the last 50 years in downtown Cairo to a newly built museum near the Great Pyramids.

In 21st-century Egypt, the pharaohs still travel in style. A marching band and mounted military guard were on hand Thursday to escort an enormous statue of Ramses II on its fourth voyage in 3,200 years.

What is intended as the colossus’ final voyage is also the shortest: a 1,200-foot jaunt from the temporary building in Giza where it has spent a little more than a decade, to the soaring entrance atrium of the new Grand Egyptian Museum, its planned permanent destination.

Any movement of the statue is notable due to its staggering size. Weighing in at 83 tons and more than 30 feet high, the granite sculpture depicting the 19th-Dynasty pharaoh was transported in a custom-made metal cage resting on two trailer beds, hauled slowly by a bright orange truck emblazoned with the Egyptian flag.

Ramses II, also known as Ramses the Great, is widely considered to be the most powerful pharaoh of ancient Egypt Egypt. During his reign from 1279 to 1213 B.C., he conducted military campaigns in Nubia, Syria, and Canaan, defeated the enigmatic Sea People in a naval battle in the Nile Delta, and claimed victory over Egypt’s Hittite rivals in the Battle of Kadesh (a conflict that ended with the signing of the world’s first treaty).

Ramses also built on a colossal scale, most notably the massive Ramesseum tomb complex in Thebes and the Great Temple at Abu Simbel, where 65-foot high depictions of the pharaoh seated on his throne flank the entrance.

The colossus that arrived at the Grand Egyptian Museum has had a circuitous history, beginning with its transport from the quarries of Aswan to the Temple of Ptah in the ancient capital of Memphis in the 13th century B.C. Lost to the sands over millennia, the statue was rediscovered by Italian Egyptologist Giovanni Battista Caviglia (the archaeologist who originally excavated the Sphinx) in 1820. Caviglia offered his discovery, lying on its side and broken into six pieces, to an Italian duke who turned down his gift due to the cost and practicalities of moving the enormous sculpture.

The British Museum later waved away a similar offer of the statue by an Egyptian pasha for similar reasons. The Ramses colossus rested among the ruins of ancient Memphis (modern Mit-Rahina), on the West Bank of the Nile some 25 miles south of Cairo for more than 130 years. In 1954, Egypt’s president Gamal Abdel-Nasser ordered that the statue be brought to Cairo to celebrate the second anniversary of the 1952 Revolution, which abolished the constitutional monarchy, and to affirm Egypt’s ancient legacy. The fragments were transported by tank (the lions of the Giza Zoo were said to have roared in unison as the great pharaoh passed by) and the statue was reassembled, restored, and erected in the center of Bab Al-Hadid square in front of Cairo’s main train station.

For a half century, the statue stood as a silent sentinel in the center of a traffic circle, resolute among the tangle of city boulevards and overpasses, rattling buses and honking cars. In 2006, concerned that automobile emissions were damaging the ancient red granite sculpture, the Egyptian government moved the statue to Giza in anticipation of eventually installing it at the entrance to the Grand Egyptian Museum.

Thousands of residents waved and cheered as Ramses the Great, lovingly referred to as “Grandfather,” made a 10-hour truck journey through the streets of Cairo, swaddled in layers of protective foam and suspended in the same metal cage used in the most recent move.

As with previous times that Ramses has changed locations, his final move was a grand spectacle and major press event. In this case, however, his destination is also making headlines around the world.

Called the “world’s largest museum,” the Grand Egyptian Museum was conceived in 2002 as a modern repository for Egypt’s ancient treasures, and the 650,000-square-foot building is currently under construction in the shadow of Giza’s iconic pyramids.

When the museum is completed in 2020 at a cost of roughly a billion dollars, it will have the capacity to display 100,000 artifacts.

The Ramses statue is the first major artifact to enter the permanent collection area of the GEM, according to Tarek Tawfik, the museum’s supervisor-general.

The move of the colossus at Giza, officiated by Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Anany, along with a red carpet crowd of Egyptian ministers, officials, and foreign dignitaries and a gaggle of media, shows that even after thousands of years the sheer scale of Ramses’ creations still have the power to evoke awe.

In 2017, a fragment of a colossal pharaonic statue unearthed in a Cairo neighborhood made international headlines and was originally (and mistakenly) identified as Ramses the Great due to its enormous size. A fragment from another colossal Ramses statue, unearthed in 1817 and now in the British Museum, is believed to have inspired Percy Bysshe Shelley’s famous sonnet Ozymandias: “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

]]>http://amandlanews.com/ramses-ii-moves-to-brand-new-museum-home-near-pyramids/feed/0South African Jazz Legend Hugh Masekela Dies at Age 78http://amandlanews.com/south-african-jazz-legend-hugh-masekela-dies-at-age-78/
http://amandlanews.com/south-african-jazz-legend-hugh-masekela-dies-at-age-78/#respondSat, 17 Feb 2018 01:03:56 +0000http://amandlanews.com/?p=5542“An immeasurable loss to the music industry and to the country at large.” -South African President Jacob Zuma

Legendary jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela, a leading figure in the struggle to end apartheid and “the father of South African,” has died aged 78.

In a statement, his family said he had “passed peacefully” in Johannesburg “after a protracted and courageous battle with prostate cancer.”

Masekela gained global recognition with his distinctive Afro-Jazz sound and hits such as Soweto Blues.

The 1977 song became synonymous with the anti-apartheid movement.

In a statement, South African President Jacob Zuma said Masekela’s death was “an immeasurable loss to the music industry and to the country at large.”

Zuma continued: “His contribution to the struggle for liberation will never be forgotten.”

Born in the South African town of Witbank in 1939, Masekela was inspired to learn the trumpet after seeing Kirk Douglas play Bix Beiderbecke in the 1950 film Young Man with a Horn.

He persuaded one of his teachers – the anti-apartheid crusader Father Trevor Huddleston – to buy him an instrument, promising to stay out of trouble in return.In 1960, aged 21, he left South Africa to begin what would be 30 years in exile from the land of his birth.

Under the tutelage of Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong, he was encouraged to develop his own unique style.

In 1967, he performed at the Monterey Pop Festival alongside Janis Joplin, Otis Redding, Ravi Shankar, The Who and Jimi Hendrix.

The following year, his instrumental single Grazing in the Grass topped the charts in the US and became a worldwide hit.

Masekela returned to South Africa in 1990 following the release of Nelson Mandela, whose freedom he had called for in his 1986 anthem Bring Home Nelson Mandela.

In June 2010, he performed at both the opening concert of the Fifa World Cup and the tournament’s opening ceremony in Soweto’s Soccer City.

In their statement, Masekela’s family described him as “a loving father, brother, grandfather and friend” who would be “forever in our hearts.”

“Hugh’s global and activist contribution to and participation in the areas of music, theatre and the arts in general is contained in the minds and memory of millions across six continents,” it continued.

“We are blessed and grateful to be part of a life and ever-expanding legacy of love, sharing and vanguard creativity that spans the time and space of six decades.”

Details of memorial and burial services, the family said, would be released “in due course.”

South African musician Loyiso Bala was among many to mark his death on Twitter.

The passing of Hugh Masekela is the end of an era and has saddened many across the country.

Described as a legend, he was celebrated for his contribution to music, theatre and social and political activism.

The jazz musician whose Soweto Blues served as one of the soundtracks to the anti-apartheid movement was never one to shy away from challenging the status quo.

In a career spanning six decades, he gained international recognition with his distinctive sound, a constant reminder of his love for South Africa – a country whose political turmoil once forced him into exile.

Diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2008, the world-acclaimed musician – affectionately known as Bra Hugh – spent the last months of his life encouraging men to go for regular cancer check-ups.

Importing on average over $150 million worth of used clothes and shoes from primarily the United States and Europe, several East African nations are starting to push back. With at least 70% of donated garments finding their way to Africa, now Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and other nations are considering curtailing or even outright banning such imports, in a bid to promote the growth local textile industries.

In 2015, shareholders of manufacturing corporations from across the East African Community (EAC) — including Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, and Tanzania — met for a summit in Uganda to discuss “a new dawn in the history of manufacturing in [the] East Africa region.” During the summit, resolutions were made, including one stipulating that the EAC would develop a policy to support the development of sectors such as textiles and apparels, “which are crucial for employment creation, poverty reduction, and advancement in technological capability.”

A year later, a handful of countries in the EAC proposed banning imported used clothing in an effort to boost the development of local textile and clothing manufacturing. In Rwanda, the Ministry of Trade and Industry developed a new strategy for “Made in Rwanda,” a campaign it had started in 2014 to boost local economy by celebrating Rwandan designers and products.

Linda Mukangoga, co-founder of Haute Baso, a clothing and design shop in Kigali, Rwanda, is excited about what the future holds for Rwandan designers. “Made in Rwanda,” she says, “means being able to create clothing and services in collaboration with Rwandans for both local and international consumers.”

Although efforts to stimulate East African domestic markets might appear to some to be a promising sign of the EAC’s dedication to growth, the United States and international trade communities are calling for a stop to the used clothing ban, firmly placing themselves in a battle with East African countries for domination over trade and manufacturing rights.

To understand the complexities of the situation, one must have at least a cursory knowledge of the modern history of the clothing industry and the used clothing trade in both colonial and post-colonial Africa.

Before the 19th century, most Europeans and Americans owned just a few well-made articles of clothing.

The Industrial Revolution, however, led to the production of ready-towear garments and mass production of textiles, driving down both the prices and the quality of clothing. Cheap, disposable clothing forever changed fashion, and like most other budding global industries, textile sectors had their winners and losers.

The wealthiest nations were responsible for not only the meteoric rise of their own local manufacturing, but the phenomenal fall of local manufacturing in the colonies they controlled. During precolonial and colonial times, colonist regimes exploited the sub-Saharan people by stripping them of their natural resources and exporting raw materials back to Europe and the New World. At the same time, sub-Saharan Africa’s markets were flooded with cheap European-made products that cost less than African products, prompting Africans to form a dependency on imports, and eventually causing local economies to collapse as European and North American markets flourished.

African independence in the 1960s ushered in a time of economic revitalization. Thousands of people in East Africa were employed in the clothing and shoe industrial sectors, contributing to the growth of their economies, social services, and infrastructure.

In 1982, this all changed when the international debt crisis started in Latin America. African governments, responding to a collapse in prices of commodities such as textiles, were severely affected. Since the crisis exploded, global banks have declined lending to many African nations. These same countries have seen their multilateral debt increase, and it’s this trade deficit that countries such as Rwanda want to resolve by stimulating and growing local markets.

It might seem like a no-brainer for sub-Saharan Africa to grow their economies, but the US and other wealthy countries stand to lose billions of dollars over the next decade if the used clothing ban goes through (East Africa imported $151 million worth of clothing just in 2015, mostly from the US and Europe).

Due to the Internet and social media, international fashion cycles begin and end at an increasingly dizzying pace. “Fast fashion” is designed to go out of style after the first wear, and Americans, in a quest to be trendy, throw away 16.22 million tons of textiles per year — or roughly 70 pounds per person.

Most castoff textiles end up in landfills, some are combusted to produce energy, and about 2.6 million tons are recycled or donated to charity. Giving to other people and charities makes most people feel happy and healthy, so donors might be horrified to learn that only 10 to 20 percent of their total clothing donations are sold by charities in thrift shops.

The rest is sorted by product — clothing, rags, fibers—and then packed into large bales and exported for profit to countries such as Russia, Pakistan, India, and many nations on the African continent. In other words, most of our clothing donations won’t ever go to people in need, and in fact, they stymie local clothing manufacturing and negatively impact economic growth in low-income countries.

To make matters worse, in 2005, a massive removal of international trade restrictions led to a near-collapse of local textile manufacturing in sub-Saharan Africa, and a whopping 70 percent of textiles exported internationally by wealthy nations end up in the EAC. The proposed used clothing ban is the EAC’s way of saying “Enough is enough.”

What would the ban mean for countries such as the United States? Jackie King, executive director of the Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association (SMART), a trade association made up of members from around the world, says that industrywide, “there are at least 40,000 US jobs within the private sector and another 150,000 jobs in the not-for-profit sector that stand to be negatively impacted by the import ban.”

It’s difficult, however, to believe the issues surrounding the outcry against the ban are just about jobs. Used clothing is big business for wealthy nations. In 2016, the US was the leading exporter of used clothing worldwide, with a value of over $575 million in exports. If the ban were to go through, King believes that “hundreds of companies in the United States and thousands of companies abroad would be affected.”

To complicate matters, Rwanda and other countries in the EAC are members of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a US trade act that offers incentives for African countries in exchange for building free markets and elimination of barriers to US trade and investment.

The proposed used clothing ban is seen by many people in the US and wealthy nations to be a move out of a protectionist playbook that would serve only their own interests, and in 2017, the Office of the US Trade Representative threatened to withdraw Rwanda’s, Tanzania’s, and Uganda’s memberships from AGOA (Burundi and South Sudan had already been withdrawn because their governments were accused of state-sanctioned violence).

In June of last year, Kenya, bowing to pressure from the US, ducked out of the proposed used clothing ban.

The rest of the EAC, however, is holding strong, with Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame particularly bullish in his response to the threat: “As far as I am concerned, making the choice is simple, we might suffer consequences…Rwanda and other countries in the region that are part of AGOA have to do other things, we have to grow and establish our industries.”

King believes that “only a small proportion of [East African] countries’ populations can afford to buy new clothing. For so many in these countries who are existing on the equivalent of $1 to $2 or less per day, secondhand clothing and shoes provide their only meaningful access to quality apparel. By banning the import of used clothing, they are forcing their poor population to buy expensive new clothing which they cannot afford.”

Mukangoga disagrees: “There is a mindset that new clothes are unaffordable, but that is changing as more companies are producing [clothes] to address different audiences.

We as Made in Rwanda are putting [forth an] effort to show how accessible it is to buy local from designers who are a part of CollectiveRw or at events such as the Made in Rwanda Expo, which is organized by a private sector federation in collaboration with the government to showcase [local] innovations and products to the public.”

Moreover, Mukangoga adds that “there is deliberate effort by the Ministry of Trade to change the mindset of consumers toward locally made products” and make new clothing not only more affordable, but the chain of local production more sustainable.

This isn’t exactly the whole story, but it is perhaps the one that bothers the US the most. In an effort to decrease its reliance on the West, and also because China’s involvement in Africa — despite being controversial — has led to poverty reduction and growth, many sub-Saharan countries are welcoming Chinese manufacturers with open arms. Numerous clothing companies that previously had their operations in China are now moving to Africa.

Even the Huajian Group, a Chinese shoe manufacturer that produces Ivanka Trump’s shoe line, has been considering moving its operations to Ethiopia.

As Chinese manufacturers set up shop in Rwanda, some of them are holding management courses for Rwandans and teaching locals how to sew, cut material, and inspect production lines.

When asked for her thoughts about Chinese manufacturing, Mukangoga had not responded by press time. President Kagame, however, who was re-elected for a controversial third term in 2017 with 99 percent of the vote, has a close bilateral relationship with President Xi, and he is welcoming Chinese involvement with Rwanda.

Currently, China isn’t even on the list of the top 10 worldwide exporters of used clothing, but in 2009, the country surpassed the US and became Africa’s largest trading partner.

In 2012, China’s trade with Africa hit $198.5 billion, almost double the United States’s $99.8 billion. Donald Trump, in efforts to be more protectionist, has threatened China with penalties and tariffs, and his administration is in the midst of determining whether to adopt these actions.

“We are now awaiting a final determination from the US government [about AGOA eligibility standards],” says King, “and it is our hope that a resolution can be reached with all the EAC member countries to benefit our industry as well as the people of the EAC.”

Meanwhile, back in Rwanda, Mukangoga believes that it’s only natural for any economy to want to invest in and promote local industry. “It enables us to be a part of a global value chain while satisfying our own needs,” she says.

“The rationale is to increase exports and reduce import surplus. The more Rwanda and East Africa retails locally produced clothing [both] internally and [also] externally, the more of a balance in trade we’re likely to achieve.”
Perhaps this is what this this is really about — not just a matter of free trade or who gets to control local and international manufacturing, but also a question of balance, fairness, and equity. It’s hard to dispute that colonialism retarded development of the African continent.

Centuries after colonial regimes stripped their natural resources and destroyed their local economies by floodng markets with cheap international products, countries like Rwanda are trying to get equal footing in the market by gaining autonomy over their own manufacturing.

“Made in Rwanda,” says Mukangoga, means “a lot more than just producing fashionable clothing. It is the opportunity to create employment within our communities and continuously add value and upgrade existing skills.”
At the end of the day, isn’t this the same thing that supporters of the Made in America label want? A chance to succeed and to stand on one’s own feet? This is much bigger than a used clothing ban, and it’s greater than just a matter of money.

It’s a matter of the US being in the middle of an imperialist competition with China, a matter of this same superpower trying to issue diktats against certain countries within the EAC, and, most importantly, a matter of dignity and success for proud African countries forced to grapple with postcolonial legacies.

]]>http://amandlanews.com/thanks-but-no-thanks-used-clothes-dilemma/feed/0New book probes the life of a King and a Culturehttp://amandlanews.com/new-book-probes-the-life-of-a-king-and-a-culture/
http://amandlanews.com/new-book-probes-the-life-of-a-king-and-a-culture/#respondWed, 17 Jan 2018 21:43:37 +0000http://amandlanews.com/?p=5513by Ben ALEXANDER

Anyone who read Kofi Ayim’s comprehensive work The Akan of Ghana, released in 2015, might have concluded from the enormity of the work that he had said all there was to say about the Akan of Ghana.

However, the New Jersey-based scholar, who is himself an Akan, is back with a new volume that probes the life of one extraordinary Akan king, Kwasi Akuffo, who held the stool of the Akuapem State from 1895 to 1907 and again from 1914 until his death in 1927.

As Ayim makes clear in The Legendary Kwasi Akuffo, Kwasi Akuffo’s claims to fame are many. He may well hold a world record for number of children sired with his many wives, and indeed a number of his descendants hold distinguished positions in Ghana today. He also knew how to navigate to intricate middle ground between traditionalism and modernism, and between traditional law and British colonial rule.

One learns from Ayim that Akuffo made sure his children were well educated and encouraged the development of their talents and other such gifts; that he knew multiple languages and was an expert in both Akan traditions and western ideas; that he brought much dignity and prestige to the kingship; and that he was an adept trader who managed to amass much wealth through his own efforts. Ayim does not gloss over the fact that Akuffo had a hot temper, that he was as adept at making enemies as friends, and that his first kingship ended in an ignominious destoolment, which Ayim chronicles in detail.

Still, the tone that Ayim conveys is a favorable one. Ayim also provides a detailed history of how the Akuapem State came about, through a struggle of its local Guan inhabitants to break free from a tyrannical Akwamu regime that was governing them in the early 18th century, and he additionally reviews some of the Akan traditions of kingship and the role of queen mothers that he first discussed in The Akan of Ghana.

He also delves into the mixed blessings and dilemmas that European Christianity brought to African societies, and in fact shows how conflict between Christianity and traditional culture played a part in the determination of one queen mother, who happened to be married to a Protestant Pastor, to have Kwasi Akuffo destooled in 1907.

An extensive series of appendices brings together an exhaustive chronology of events, a list of kings and queen mothers (which Ayim acknowledges may have some imprecisions but is the best that could be reconstructed from limited source material), and a treasury of folk remedies that Kwasi Akuffo collected and passed on.

A particularly rich trove of detail is an appendix that probes what is known of some of the Guan and Kyerepon towns of Akuapem, divided into quarters whose names and particulars of governance have been preserved, where priests and traditional leaders come alive. Kofi Ayim, by this work brings alive the trove of knowledge of King Kwasi Akuffo to the 21st century, that hitherto was almost lost to posterity.